A Rock and a Very Strange Place
by Dr. Tal
Summary: Waking up in a place that you're unfamiliar with sucks. Waking up in a up coming game sucks even more, espeically when I can barely remember who I am. Just trying to survive is hard enough let alone figure out what the hell is going on.


"Augh" I think it as well as mumble it. Everything hurts, my arms, legs, torso and head throbbing waves of pain. I feel as if I've had a white rod steel rod speared through my brain, and let me tell you; it's not a sensation I'd recommend. I think I'll just lie here awhile longer until the pain subsides.

Wait, where is here? Twitching my fingers, I feel something, that well isn't all that solid, and why is it so cold where ever I am? It's raining that's why, and I just realised that my hand is now covered in mud, which probably means that I'm _also_ covered in the stuff. Ok, don't panic, just go think back to what you can remember last…hmm…there was…nothing. Ah crap.

"Alright, see we're I am first, then find memory," I open my eyes, and…what the hell? There's a tree, a fairly decent sized one, there's paintings on its lower half, I can't make out the patterns to well, too dark to notice details anyway. And wet, and muddy, right new plan, get out of wet mud. 

"Ow, ow, ow, ow," Ok moving is really not a good idea at the moment, everything still feels _very_ sore. Ok this isn't good, my vision is going blurry, I'm going to pass out I can tell, my head feels so light and that's never a good thing. I feel my legs tangling around themselves, subsequently sending me head first towards the very solid looking door, this is going to hurt when I wake up…ah crap.

***BANG***

"What was a human doing outside? And why was he in the Alienage in the first place?"  
>"Hush Feynriel, he's clearly injured and needs rest."<p>

Alienage? Why does that sound familiar? Now where the hell am I? Wait, that's a term from Dragon Age, what is going on? These people must be obsessed with the game is all, must be it, other possibility is that I'm going mad. Ok let's just see where I am and who I'm dealing with, then go from there. Groaning I sit up and open my eyes.

"How do you feel stranger?" I turn to the voice, and, since when did women have pointed ears? Well her tattoos look cool, I always liked symmetrical ones…I think I'm still light headed.

"You have pointy ears,"…I can't believe I just said that out loud. I elicit a throb of pain from my head as I face palm. "Sorry, I didn't mean to say that, well not out loud. Where am I? Oh and thanks for taking me out of the weather."

"You're welcome stranger, and to answer your first question, you're in our house, in the Alienage," says the nice pointy eared woman. "How are you feeling, you hit our door fairly hard young man."

"Aside from the light headedness and the embarrassment from speaking my thoughts out loud; like I've had the stuffing beaten out of me." That got a laugh from her. The first voice chimed in again.

"Why where you out there in that weather in the first place?" Huh, this guy doesn't have the pointy ears, but is still slim like the pointy eared woman.

"I can't remember," there's something with this set up that's bothering me, but I can't grasp what it is yet.

"What's your name?" non pointy eared boy asks me.

"It's…it's…my name is…," And that's when I realise a few things. Well that I realise I can't remember a few things. A few things I do remember are that 'Alienage' is a term in the game Dragon Age, a place where city elves live. And elves have pointy ears, that woman has pointy ears, which means she's an elf. But elves don't exist do they? Crap, crap, crap, not good. If my logic is right, then I'd most likely be in the Denerim Alienage. But the bigger problem is this; I can't remember who I am. Probably should be polite and answer non pointy eared boys' question.

"I can't remember. Crap! I don't know my own name! Who the hell am I?" Why can I remember a damn video game, but not who the hell I am? What do I do? Ok, ok, ok, think, focus on what you _do_ remember.

"Focus, tell us what you can remember, where you're from?" Pointy eared woman says soothingly. "Family? Anything at all, just relax and think"

Ok that's a good idea. Alrighty, focusing. "I have a brother and a sister," no way am I forgetting those two. "Well half brother and sister, but their still my family."

"That's good, what else?" she says. "Do you remember where you live? Lowtown, Hightown, Darktown, maybe some where else in the Free Marches?"

"I don't know," what are all these towns? I don't remember any towns with those names in Fereldan. Am I crazy, or in a coma? Was in a car crash? Wait I don't have a car…

"You don't sound like a Kirkwaller, more like a Fereldan, but an odd one at that" chimed in the non pointy eared lad.

Wait…Kirkwall…that's the setting for Dragon Age II... "What city am I in?" I know seemingly pointless question, but I have a horrible theory. They both answered at the same time.

"You're in the Alienage at Kirwall," They're both looking at me like I'm crazy, hell they're probably right. But that lends support to my horrible theory, well part of it anyway.

"I need to lie down again…I need to think about this…I need to figure out…" I don't finish my line of thought, probably due to loosing consciousness again.

Why me? Is it because I read too much fan fiction? That I like fan fics' that centre on OC's that are thrust into story's universe. Fucking irony making me live it out? But why the memory loss? And why into this universe? I mean, what do I know? That Kirkwall is where most of Dragon Age II takes place. Hell I don't even know the time period I've been placed in. I don't know if the Blight's over in Fereldan. I don't know who's died, who's been placed on the crown. I don't even know much about the main character of the sequel, just the name; Hawk. I think I'm going to be sick. I need some air, pulling off the rough blanket, I notice for the first time is that all I'm wearing is a pair of shorts. 

"Ah good, I see you're up," I look up to see pointy eared woman approaching with what look to be clothes.

In typical fashion, I blert out what I was thinking. "Why am I wearing shorts? I've never owned these before." I look to my host. "I'm so sorry, I never asked your name, unless that's rude or something."

She simply laughed. "My name is Arianni, and as for the shorts da'len, they were my son Feynriel's, when we found you, you were naked."

I felt the blood rise rapidly to my cheeks. "Oh, well um thanks. Not that I'm ungrateful, but well, why did you look after me, wouldn't it have been easier to just let me…"

"Let you keep lying face first in the mud?" That's one way of putting it I guess. "Because da'len, it would be wrong to let suffering go on, when I could act to prevent it. Also because you made a very loud 'bang' when you hit the door, tends to attract attention, which is something we don't want."

That's really, well nice, but there's still one thing I don't get. "But I'm human, don't elves and humans, you know, dislike each other?"

"While that's generally true, you got lucky in some sense that you hit _my_ door with your head. You see Feynriel is half human, and you look to be around his age."

"I'm nineteen, hey! I remembered something!" I almost expected everything to come rushing back, but I'm never that lucky. "Are these clothes Feynriel's as well?" They look a little big, which doesn't make sense, seeing as he looked slimmer than me.

"No they're his fathers' but he hasn't been here for a _very_ long time, so you may as well use them. Now I take it you don't have anywhere to stay, we have a little room, but you're going have to work for it."

I weighed my options, it look about 3 seconds, small house, hard work and most likely hostility from the locals. Or taking my chances out on the streets, where I'd likely be killed after a few days. It didn't take me long me long to decide.

"Thank you I accept," I am so boned.

Four weeks of labour at the docks and running errands later, and I feel as if I somehow managed to piss off every major and minor deity in this reality. Eight bits or coppers, or whatever they're called a week, and all of it I gave to Arianni to well, pay for food. I would have thought that after a month of living in this city I would of at least been able to remember how to get from the docks to the Alienage, but alas that is not the case. The only reason I ever turned up on time, is because I simply follow some of the elves that also look for work around the docks, then I follow any elf I encounter at the end of the day, one advantage of them all living in the same place I guess. The work at the docks is down right dangerous, moving about the ships and shifting heavy cargo is not safe, at all. If something falls on you, then you're out of work. If you fall in the water, you have to watch out for the ships rising and bumping against the docks, if they hit you you're out of work. If you don't work fast enough, you're out of work. If you ask too many questions, you're out of work. If you don't follow orders to the letter. If the crates are placed the wrong way. It's a _long_ list. There is no easy work for someone of my standing.

If the fact that I shouldn't even be in this reality wasn't enough to make me an enigma, or the fact that I could barely remember anything from before I wound up here. Then there's this; I'm a human living in an elven Alienage. Other humans' treat me as if I were an elf, while the elves' outright ignore me at the best of times. Arianni and Feynriel are mostly friendly, they accept that I live with them now, I guess the meagre amount of coin I bring in makes it a little easier for all of us. The house is tiny, I literally sleep on the floor, and the house is just two rooms, one main, and another smaller one for food storage. There's a few semi-curtained of corners, to provide privacy but that's about it. Oh it's dark, not many windows. At least it has a roof, and is usually water tight.

Arianni got tired of calling me da'len all the time, so well she, gave me a new name; Talinath. It doesn't mean anything, but hey I have a name at least. Well I guess it beats 'da'len, she told me it means child. So this is Talinath, or me, a dock worker in Kirkwall living in an elven Alienage. Somehow pulled from my reality and placed into one that is one of my favourite video games.

I am so boned.

**AN: First of all, this is mostly based of a dream I had a couple of weeks ago. Also this my first attempt at writing fanfic. So if you feel I need to be aware of what I've done right (or more likely wrong) let me know. This is just a preliminary chapter, I will strive to make them longer, even if they take longer to write.**

**Last of all, it is because of Herr Wozzeck and iNf3tioNZ that I felt I'd try my hand at this writing business, if you love Mass Effect, then check out their work, you won't regret it.**


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